Fairfax County Man Pleads Guilty to Producing Child Pornography and Attempted Enticement of a Minor

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; and Lt. Colonel James A. Morris, Acting Fairfax County Chief of Police made the announcement after the plea was accepted by United States District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.

Payne pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography, which each carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 25 years and a maximum penalty of 50 years in prison. This sentence has been enhanced due to a prior conviction of using a computer to solicit a minor in Fairfax County. Payne also pleaded guilty to one count of attempted enticement of a minor, which carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for July 5, 2013.

According to court documents, during the investigation of a Fairfax County probation violation in December 2011, electronic communications between Payne and a minor victim in Indiana and another minor victim in Pennsylvania were discovered. In these text messages and online chats, Payne requested that the minor victims send him nude images of themselves. Payne also instructed the minor females on how to pose in various sexually revealing positions. Payne possessed at least one child pornography image of each minor victim which they had sent in response to his request. Payne and the minor victim located in Indiana also had specific conversations about Payne going to Indiana and having sex with her there. On December 28, 2011, while Payne was on his way to Indiana, he was instructed to return home for a meeting with his Fairfax County probation officer.

This case was investigated by the Fairfax County Police Department and the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation Task Force. Special Assistant United States Attorney Alicia J. Yass, a Trial Attorney with the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.